ALTO Bar and Grill by Dining Concepts - wow, what a view

http://www.diningconcepts.com/Alto

Dining Concepts is one of the leading restaurant groups in Hong Kong, running a heap of restaurants from some of the world's leading chefs.  Names like Gordon Ramsey and Mario Batali are associated with the group, which gives Dining Concepts star power.  So much so that the group launched on the Hong Kong stock exchange this week with shares rising an amazing 1900% at one point.

Amazing really.

One of the key things about Dining Concepts is that they sure do know how to open a restaurant, often with much fanfare, sometimes low key.  ALTO in Causeway bay was the most recent restaurants to join the stable and after reading some of the press about the joint, we decided to get along and check it out.

Located in the very new V Point building, which it must be said was still not fully occupied at the time of our visit, the very modern space resides on the 31st floor of the building and had simply stunning views of Hong Kong.  You're instantly assaulted by the stunning array of lights that dangle from the ceiling, very much looking like floating orbs or golden suns at first, but as you get closer, more like bright amoeba - all different shapes and glowing.  The rest of the restaurant is a mix of comfortable modern chairs and tables that seemed like a cross between picnic and traditional restaurant tables.  

Designer Tom Dixon of internationally renowned Design Research Studio had done a superb job of building a contemporary looking restaurant that has moved away from the semi industrial feel that seems to be so prevalent nowadays!

Prego Italian - simple ingredients but full flavour

http://www.diningconcepts.com/Prego

Sometimes you just want something simple to eat.  I've been feasting on a lot of French fine dining recently, including stints at two and three Michelin starred establishments with incredibly rich food.  Fun for a while, but boy, you can get over that pretty quickly!

When you want nice simple food that tastes great, then you really can't go past great Italian food, where the whole philosophy is to use as few ingredients as possible to extract maximum flavour.  We've only recently started to find some great little Italian restaurants in Hong Kong, after finding a few shockers initially.

One of the better Italian diners we'd loved was Dining Concepts Cecconi's, which was really conveniently located in Soho, a place that we walked past most nights on the way home from work.  It would have been a perfect foil for the rich French food we'd been consuming in the last month, but it had moved out it's Elgin Street home to Wyndham Street - just a little too far out of our way.  

Luckily, the team at Dining Concepts had done the old 'switcharoo', replacing one great Italian restaurant with another.  I'm not really sure why, but Cecconi's was replaced with Prego Italian, a more relaxed style of Italian more closely resembling 'Mama's home-style cooking, from kitchen to table'.  

It sounded perfect!

Craftsteak - Open fire cooking

http://www.diningconcepts.com/craftsteak

One of the most famous names in steak restaurants is Tom Colicchio, who is better known in his role as head jude go Top Chef (one of my favourite cooking shows).  I was pretty excited when I was wandering around Soho in Hong Kong one day and saw that there was a Craftsteak in Hong Kong. Upon further investigation though, I was disappointed to find out that it was in no way associated with it's more famous namesake.

I wasn't surprised though to find out that Craftsteak HK was actually part of Dining Concepts, arguably the most prolific restaurant group in this part of the world.  While I was mildly disappointed that I wouldn't get the quality and styings of a global celebrity chef, I knew that at least Craftsteak HK would be the real deal (or at least I hoped).

We'd not made a reservation but managed to easily score a table for a mid week on-the-way-home-from-work dinner.  Securing a table down near the open plan kitchen, I was able to get a view of the open fire custom made charcoal fired grill.  We were given a couple of menus to look over and it became clear quite quickly that Craftsteak was the king of meats, with a good selection of cuts of beef and lamb from the USA, Australia and New Zealand.

Bistecca - Another Dining Concepts Gem

Bistecca Italian Steak

Those crazy cats at Dining Concepts just keep rolling with an impressive array of restaurants and our exploration of their portfolio continued when we checked out one of their many steak restaurants.  Bistecca, Italian Steak Restaurant is located in Hong Kong hotspot Lan Kwai Fong and also has the distinction of being in the SCMP Good Eating Guide's top 100 tables of HK.

Bistecca is an easy walk from my work in Central, so it's pretty convenient for those after work dinners when you don't want to travel too far but get a quality meal.  Like so many restaurants in HK, you need to find the right building then head for the elevator to find the place.  I really love this about HK, it's like being transported to a new reality every time the lift door opens, each floor has a seemingly never ending stream of restaurants.  This time we walked into an exposed red brick interior that had shades of rustic Tuscany and by the time we were seated, I almost felt like we were in provincial Italy for our dinner.

Except for the window view, which was all Hong Kong!

Cecconi's - their meatballs are amazing!

http://www.diningconcepts.com/cecconis/index.php

If you've been living in Hong Kong for any length of time, chances are, you've been to one of the restaurants that makes up the DiningConcepts stable.  In what has to be one of the most diverse portfolios of restaurants in HK, DiningConcepts has so many dining spots that they run a frequent diners club loyalty program.  With over over twenty different concepts, the team run such favourites as Gordon Ramsay's Bread Street Kitchen (see post here) and Mario Batali's Lupa (see post here).

We've rather enjoyed most of our visits to the DiningConcepts restaurants, so have recently been keeping an eye out for one of their restaurants when looking for dinner.  Over the last few months, we'd had some pretty ordinary Italian cuisine, which is always disappointing given our love of Italian food.  So, when we spotted a little restaurant in Expat territory (Elgin Street), we breathed a sigh of relief when we saw it on the list managed by the group.

The front of Cecconi's is quite deceiving, it's hard to see into the restaurant, so it would be easy to miss the casual elegance of the white linen tables and the classy, yet understated dining room. Walking through the front door located under the slightly garish neon sign and into the quiet tranquility of the completely empty restaurant, completely removed us from bustling Soho and the heat of a typical Hong Kong evening.  We were taken directly to our table, which was located in a very comfy booth at the back of the restaurant, which gave me fantastic views of the pass.